Engineering
by KE12
Summary: What happens to the Normandy when it crash lands after the Citadel blew? This story gives a small taste to the nightmare that ensues in engineering. Main characters are Tali, Garrus, Joker, Daniels and Donnelly, suitable for all ages. Bioware owns all.


Garrus groaned at the order that Tali had just give him, he was an expert on weapons not engine cores or the whatever the name crystal that did this and that with the mass effect fields. "Tali, I may be a weapon expert, but your going to have to start from the beginning for me on engines."

There was a frustrated sigh released down the communicator, Tali was sick to death of being stuck on the isolated planet and ever since crashing on it after the order to retreat from the citidel her frustration had being growing exponentially by the second. "Find the valve labelled 1B06, it should be red."

It was now Garrus's turn to sigh, in front of him there was possibly 50 plus red valves. "Err give me a min." After checking his 36th valve he eventually found the required device. "Right got it."

"Okay, you need to calibrate that valve so that it allows no more than 8.764 Terrajoules to pass through it."

"Calibrate? Now that I can do." After using multiple very familiar tools to the Turian he managed to calibrate the valve to Tali's specification. "Now what?"

"Walk 20 meters towards the bow and you should find another valve named 1B07, this time it will be blue, do exactly the same." It took Garrus another ten minutes to find and then calibrate the valve, when he informed Tali of the Calibration she spoke over the intercom. "Right Joker, the engine should be working."

Jokers voice joined Tali's on the intercom, his voice by now also showed signs of desperation and frustration. "Last time you said that we blew 12 relay banks, 31 capacitors, a few billion mosfets and who knows what else. Are you sure?"

"Joker!" Tali snapped at the pilot.

"Alright, alright. Powering the engines up now." After he spoke there was a familiar humm fill the ship as the engine powered up, however after a few seconds the humming started to waver and eventually the ship was shunned back into silence. "Once again we have a critical engine failure!"

If Tali was on her own she would of screamed the entire ship into a trillion plus pieces. "I swear when we get back to earth I'm taking a claymore to this engine!" After a minute to let herself calm down she spoke again. "Right, any ideas as to what caused the failure?"

Joker rolled his eyes, he was a pilot not an engineer. "I've told you before without EDI this ship is basically a tin can, get EDI working and we can have an in-depth analysis and advanced engine control."

Tali slumped to the floor, she knew this was true but she couldn't do anything about it. "Joker, we don't have a magic EDI repair kit, there is next to nothing we can do till we get back to earth." Just as Tali thought that the engines systems had shut down and all damage was done a plume of black smoke started to vent from a moderator opposite where she was slumped on the floor. "Fire!"

/.../

Chakwas took a quick look at the bright pink and tender skin on the hand of the Quarian however her burns was the least of the Doctors concerns. "Tali, how long have you been awake?"

The engineer did not know, all she did know was that it was a long time. "A few days, maybe."

Chawkas shook her head in disapproval as she applied treatment to the burns. "Tali, Quarians need a minimum of 9 hours sleep a day, you aren't a Turian."

Tali raised her free hand to her face mask as if she wanted to rub her temples. "The ship needs..."

The Quarian was silenced by the Doctor. "Tali! it wasn't an observation and to be frank you will be making mistakes you wouldn't on a normal day. I don't want to give you an order but if I have to I will." There was a jumble of unintelligible words escape the Quarian in her own disapproval of the doctors wisdom. "Look, Adams, Daniel and Donnely will be able to take care of the ship till you are back on your feet. Just get your sleep."

/.../

"Garrus, if you groan one more time I am going to shove this wrench so high up your Turian ass that you will wish you were a Hanar." This was the first thing Tali heard when she entered the engine room 7 hours later, 2 hours later than she originally intended too but her body demanded the extra sleep. When Daniels heard the door shut behind her she turned around to witness the Quarian standing just in front of the door looking as if she came in at the wrong time. "Thank F.. We have traced a problem to the intake on the third manifold of branch 121. I'm trying to instruct the Turian on how to re-align the thing but it's like talking to a brick wall."

"Oh, alright. Do you want me to give him a helping hand?"

Daniels nodded enthusiastically. "When your down there do me a favour and shove a wrench up his spiky ass of a rear will you?"

Tali nodded her head, she half liked the idea of that but there was something else on her mind. "With pleasure, and how far have we gotten?"

Daniels wiped her sweaty forehead with an oil stained hand as she stood up from the set of conduits that she was working on. "We managed to get the engine to power up and stay in a stable condition but we can't power it up enough to reach escape velocity of this damned planet. Anyway to cut a long story short the problem lies in a bunch of blown conduits and manifolds, me and Donnely have the conduits but the Turian is well... give it a hand."

Tali looked around, sure enough both of the engineers in the room were working on the conduits but there was one missing person. "Where is Adams?"

There was a shrug from Daniels. "The second engine power up did more damage than we thought, he is attempting to get the cockpit controls for FTL travel working again." Just as she finished talking the doors behind Tali opened and one very tired looking oil covered engineer walked into the room and collapsed on one of the chairs near the door. "Speaking of the devil."

Adams sighed heavily as he relaxed on the chair. "FTLC should be operational now." After speaking he closed his eyes as he attempted to gain his composure. "We have no more good capacitors remaining. I had to recycle some out of the oven, doors, EDI, shuttles and just about all the terminals in CAC."

"Have you looked..."

After another sigh from the engineer he spoke. "Tali, I have dismatled all sorts just to find what I needed. It feels like the only things that I haven't raided for capacitors is environment control."

Tali scratched her left leg as she turned to Daniels. "Then we can't risk another failed engine launch. When we are ready to do another engine power up we quadruple check everything and then check again for good measure." After speaking the Quarian made her way to find the struggling Turian.

/.../

"Engine power at 2%... 7%..." The crew were waiting silently as Joker read out the engine power rating over the intercom, all they were begging for was that the number 32.5 or higher would be spoken. "12%... 17%... 20%... 22%... 22.7%..." After a while of no updates half of the crew released a sigh of defeat.

Meanwhile down in engineering Adams scratched his chin as he looked at the dials in front of him, he couldn't work out why the engine was stuggling to reach the desired percentage, after some more moments of pondering he opened a com to Jeff. "We need to drip feed her, slowly open throttle with the moderator down and when the engine starts to respond shut the throttle off and put the moderator high."

Soon after the audible humm of the engine increased in volume before dying back down. "27%... 27.9%... 28.4%..." At this small success Adams give Joker the instruction to repeat the drip feeding of the engine, after the engine responded audibly for the second time Joker give a new status. "32.2%... 33.1% as the number surpassed the desperately desired 32.5% there was a loud cheer among the crew and the engineering department felt like a few hundred tonne weight had been lifted off their shoulders. "Engine stabilising at 34.7% Next stop, Earth."

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Thanks for reading this and if any one has any pointers on what I could do to improve my writing I would love to hear it.

Anyhow, Thanks again!


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